Brendon Connelly wrote:Ever since Marvel became part of the Mickey Mouse Empire, we’ve regularly heard rumours that the studio would bring their new, four-coloured characters over to The Magic Kingdom and realise some kind of crossover.

None of these rumours have been particularly well sourced, however. Perhaps until now.

We have to go back to July 2011 to pick up the end of the thread, and a report on the Blue Sky Disney blog. It’s a reputable site with a good track record in reporting what’s going on at Disney before it’s actually been announced, often times before it’s even leaked anywhere else.

That project, once announced will generate a lot of buzz in certain geek communities, as it’s going to surprise a lot of people for what it is and what it’s not. But it’s in the very early embryonic stage and it depends on how well the project is received upon the presentation that is being prepared for John [Lasster] and Ed [Catmull].

Geek communities you say? Okay, that’s interesting but it’s nothing more than a whisp, so far. Not really.

Don Hall, incidentally, was a co-director on the recent Winnie the Pooh movie and worked in the story department on several other Disney films. I met him last year, and he’s certainly “with it” and ambitious.

The projects competing for 2014/2015 are the uber-secret film from Don Hall, which will be a marvelously unexpected project if it ever gets the green light, and Nathan Greno and Byron Howard’s films which are deep in development.

Marvelously. He didn’t do that by mistake. I’ve read enough of Honor Hunter’s blogging to know what he’s up to.

Incidentally – the whole post is interesting, and gives a lot of interesting Disney tidbits: The Philip K. Dick adaptation King of the Elves appears to have gone back on the shelf; Prep & Landing may not get a third installment; Wreck-it-Ralph is getting a lot of positive buzz.

Let’s look at a little bit of Hunter’s first comment again:

It’s going to surprise a lot of people for what it is and what it’s not.

For what it’s not, as well as what it is?

My reading of that, and it’s not based on anything more than trying to fit all of these pieces together, is that Hall is working on some kind of crossover with Marvel, but it’s not an adaptation of an actual comic book or character that already exists. The comment makes sense if it’s an all-new Marvel movie, created in collaboration with Disney.

That would surprise for what it is – a Disney-Marvel superhero film – and also for what it’s not – a known Marvel property.

So, there you have it. A couple of breadcrumbs, but they do come from the big table. Add salt if you feel the need, and do remember that we’re a long way out from this film, even if it does make its way through the arduous obstacle courses Disney set in front of their green lights.

Honor Hunter wrote:It's amazing what a couple of years and a blockbuster can do to a studio...

The Hat Building is flying on all cylinders and things are a buzzing. But not everything is going well in the Happiest Studio in Burbank.

Later this year, "Wreck-It Ralph" will debut and show audiences that "Tangled" wasn't a fluke. From the stories I've gotten, it sounds like they really have a heart filled tale that will have everyone seeing this film over and over again. What "Toy Story" did for toys, this does for video games. And the nostalgia for those that grew up on 8-bit games as well as those that love the 90's games are going to be in love with this film. And boys, will eat this up. Get that? "Boys," the marketing demo that the Suits seem to be worried about.

After that, next year we go back to classic fairy tales. Minus the names that tell you they're royalty, of course. But one tale that won't be happening anytime soon is about Elves. That's right, "King of the Elves" was racing with "Frozen" to be the 2013 release and it still has too many story structure problems to make it across the finish line. So many in fact, that Chris Williams is now off the project and going back to work on other projects (not as a director, but story boarder). It seems the script for Snow Queen aka: "Frozen" is in much better shape and it got the release date for next year, while KOTE got put on the shelve. Again.

Ron & John's new project is going through story development and could wind up being the 2014/15 slot, but it's still deep in the early stage so time will tell what happens. A lot of people have commented that this will be the duo's first computer animated film. As of now, there are development test going on for traditional, hybrid and computer examples, and no decision has been made. This decision won't be made for quite a while. Just like Pixar, the focus is on story, story, story. Not, the medium it's presented in.

The projects competing for 2014/2015 are the uber-secret film from Don Hall, which will be a marvelously unexpected project if it ever gets the green light, and Nathan Greno and Byron Howard's films which are deep in development. These are projects that are busy working out the story elements so that the films live up to John Lasseter's high Pixar standards. The one that gets the release slot will be the one whose story is deemed ready to actually animate. Not a bad concept, right?

There are a couple other projects in concept form and many more animators are lining up for pitch sessions with John for a chance to develop their ideas. Slowly the culture has changed over the past half-decade to the point where many animators and artist actually are having fun again. And many are hoping that they will be part of the Third Golden Age of Disney Animation. That is a very good thing.

Those of you that are fans of "Prep & Landing" will be interested in knowing that the ratings for last Christmas' "Naughty Versus Nice" special weren't where ABC/Disney wanted them to go, and any plans for a third special have been put into a holding pattern as the Suits figure out what/where or even when/if it should go forward. It's possible that the advertising schedule didn't exactly set the mark for giving people the information for when it would be broadcast. So Burbank is factoring in merchandise, ratings and other elements to see if there is any viability in creating another special. I certainly hope so, because there was talk of taking all of them and combining the into a film with original footage along the lines of "Winnie the Pooh."

And when talking about animation, if you follow WDAS then you know there was talk of moving down toward Glendale a while ago to be next to WDI. Those plans were canned and plans moved to trying to find a place on the lot to build a new animation building. Well, now the goal is to take the existing animation building and rework it, kind of the way Disney California Adventure had an extreme makeover done to it. And just like DCA was kept open as guests went about their way, so would be the same for artists in the Hat Building. It's nice to know that in addition to screwing up Disneyland's Second Gate, Eisner was capable of screwing up the animation building as well. But thankfully, it's all getting fixed.

But it's great to see the majority of news coming out of the Hat Building to be positive...

MIKE FLEMING wrote:EXCLUSIVE: Disney has feature film plans for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, one of its longest-running theme park rides. The studio has set iconic commercials and video director Pete Candeland to develop a live-action/CGI mix feature that will bring to life a theme park ride that originated in Disneyland on its opening in 1955. The twisting, turning ride was also popular at Walt Disney World in Florida, but the geniuses at the park closed the ride in 1998 and replaced it with The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh, which by comparison is a 10-minute nap for parents. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride is based on Disney’s adaptation of The Wind In The Willows. Tron: Legacy producer Justin Springer will produce Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and the studio is looking for a writer to draft the plot into a film. Disney, which turned its Pirates Of The Caribbean attraction into a billion-dollar feature franchise, has a version of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea with David Fincher among several percolating projects inspired by theme park attractions.

The Verve-repped Candeland is best known for his work with animation and for creating and directing the music videos for The Gorillaz. He also worked with Paul McCartney to create a cinematic opening to The Beatles Rock Band for Harmonix. Catch that opening below:

Moriarty wrote:On Allen's fourth birthday in March, we took him to Disneyland. This was his third trip, and we're still adding new rides each time we go, figuring out what he and Toshi like the most, and there are rides we still haven't been on. This past time was their first experience with Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and it was a big hit with them.

They don't know the film "Wind In The Willows" at all, though, and I've noticed that as a big part of the Disneyland experience for kids. They don't actually know many of the films that inspired the various attractions, but they enjoy the rides anyway. As my friend who joined us at the park pointed out, it's surprising they haven't taken Mr. Toad's Wild Ride out or changed it, since the ride quite literally ends with you going to Hell.

When Disney says that they're planning to develop a film based on the ride, though, I must admit I'm a little confused. Does that mean they're going to do a new adaptation of "Wind In The Willows" using these same character designs? Or are they going to throw out the story completely, take these characters, and build something totally different? That's kind of a weird idea, considering the ride was adapted from a film that was adapted from a book. It's like Disney is playing a pop culture game of telephone, and getting further from the original idea each time out.

I am intrigued by Disney's choice of director. Pete Candeland is well-known for commercials and music videos that he's directed, and he's done some iconic work. My kids are fans, although they don't know him by name. What they do know (and love) is the opening animated sequence from "The Beatles: Rock Band"…

… and the animated opening for "Rock Band 2."

I'm a fan of his work with Gorillaz. He seems equally at ease with conventional 2D animation, 3D CGI, live-action, and whatever else it takes to capture an image. Check out this video for "Melancholy Hill," for example…

… or this striking ad for Jack Daniels Honey…

… or this live event featuring Gorillaz and Madonna, a fascinating mix of media that had to work for viewers at home as well as live in the theater…

But what I haven't seen reported today is that this is a homecoming for Candeland. He actually started with Disney as part of their Australian animation studio, where he worked on "The Return of Jafar" and the "Aladdin" TV series. He moved on to other animated projects like "Balto," "All Dogs Go To Heaven 2," and, in an interesting bit of synchronicity, a 1995 film version of "Wind In The Willows." That version featured Michael Palin as the voice of Rat, and in an even stranger coincidence, a year later, there was a live-action version of "Wind In The Willows" made by Palin's fellow ex-Python Terry Jones, starring Jones, Eric Idle, and John Cleese, and that version got picked up Disney for release on DVD in the United States. The title when they released it here? "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride." Candeland's last encounter with Disney was in 1997, when he was the animation director on "Beauty And The Beast: The Enchanted Christmas."

Obviously Disney has "Pirates Of The Caribbean" in the front of their mind when they put something like this into development, and that's certainly the best case scenario for them. Right now, Jon Favreau is working to develop "Magic Kingdom," which sounds like a "Night At The Museum" style film set in the Orlando park. That's overtly tied to the park itself. I guess we'll see, if this one ever makes it through development, just how much it's based on the ride.

Peter Debruge wrote:Henry Selick is coming home -- to the Mouse House, that is.

The "Coraline" director, who began his animation career at Disney in the late '70s, has struck an exclusive long-term deal to make stop-motion features for Disney/Pixar.

Disney Animation topper John Lasseter's decision to bring Selick into the Disney/Pixar fold is another boost for the painstaking hand-crafted technique, while representing expansion beyond strictly computer-animated fare for the company.

The reunion also is a personal one, putting Selick in business with a number of long-time friends, including Lasseter and "Ratatouille" director Brad Bird.

"I first met John Lasseter when we were classmates at CalArts," Selick said in a statement. "I've watched with awe and amazement as Pixar created a new way to make animated movies with computers."

The helmer, who's been spotted in recent months at Pixar's Emeryville, Calif. campus, will set up shop in the Bay Area, where he plans to write and direct features based on both original ideas and literary properties. Selick hopes to benefit from the Pixar brain trust and technology, but will continue to produce toons using his trademark stop-motion style.

Selick made his directing debut at Disney in 1993 with the Tim Burton-produced "The Nightmare Before Christmas," which has earned more than $75 million in box office receipts for the company. But his followup, "James and Giant Peach," was a box office disappointment and ended the studio's involvement with stop-motion.

"I'll quote Dick Cook right after 'James and the Giant Peach' was finished. He said, 'We don't believe this is a viable medium anymore, and we're not going to do it,'?" Selick told Daily Variety. "A few years later they shut down 2D. It's great that both of those things are back."

At least four feature toons were produced using stop-motion animation last year, including "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "Mary and Max" and "A Town Called Panic." "Coraline" was by far the most successful of last year's stop-motion crop. Directed by Selick at Portland-based Laika, the Focus-released film earned $75 million in its theatrical release and an Oscar nomination.

Selick's Disney/Pixar deal was negotiated by Ellen Goldsmith-Vein at The Gotham Group.

MIKE FLEMING wrote:UPDATE: This Disney deal for Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book keeps getting more interesting. I’ve learned that Henry Selick, who helmed Gaiman’s Coraline, is now attached to direct The Graveyard Book at Disney. Selick, best known for Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach, is already working for Disney-based Pixar on a top secret film. But he’ll do this one after. Selick is repped by The Gotham Group. They are looking for a screenwriter now.

EARLIER EXCLUSIVE, 2:54 PM: Disney just made a high six-figure deal for The Graveyard Book, the bestselling children’s title by Neil Gaiman. The book, which won the Newbery Medal among other awards, is a riff on Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Instead of a boy raised by wolves in the jungle, Gaiman tells the story of the surviving child of a murdered family raised by ghosts in a graveyard. Gaiman’s works include Coraline, The Sandman and American Gods.

The book attracted attention at every studio upon release, and it was optioned for a large fee by UK Effects House Framestore, along with Wayfare’s Ben Browning. They had Neil Jordan attached to direct, but never got it off the ground, even though they kept renewing the option. Disney production chief Sean Bailey stepped in, and won the title in a competitive bidding situation with other studios. Gil Netter is producing with Browning, with Wayfare’s Michael Maher exec producing. The project is a priority for the studio and a potential coup for Bailey.

Rebecca Keegan wrote:Pixar's "Toy Story 3" is the highest-grossing movie of all time in Mexico, where the animated adventure tale of children's toys Woody and Buzz Lightyear collected $59 million at the box office in 2010, more than megahits like "Avatar" and the "Harry Potter" finale.

The follow-up from "Toy Story 3" director Lee Unkrich and producer Darla K. Anderson is also likely to have strong appeal with Mexican audiences -- and to boast more authentically Latino characters than a Spanish-speaking Buzz Lightyear doll.

The duo's next movie is a still-untitled project about Día de los Muertos, the Mexican holiday of the dead, which Disney and Pixar first announced at CinemaCon last month.

Pixar hasn't said how the idea of a Día de los Muertos movie came about, nor have they released any details about its plot or characters.

"Pixar movies do extremely well in Mexico," Unkrich said in mid-May, as he was waiting to offer notes to the filmmakers of the studio's next movie, "Brave," at a screening at the Skywalker Ranch in Marin County. "This will allow us to explore a really fascinating aspect of the culture there."

Unkrich said he had begun taking trips to Mexico to research the Nov. 1 holiday, best known by many in the U.S. for its proximity to Halloween and use of skull and marigold iconography.

On the Day of the Dead, which has its roots in indigenous Aztec culture, families in Mexico and many Latin American countries pay tribute to deceased loved ones by creating graveside altars with treats like candy and bottles of Coca-Cola, and donning elaborate skull masks and costumes for processionals.

"This is a very different view of death than the American one," said Unkrich. "It's not spooky. It's celebratory."

Unkrich's project wouldn't be the first time Pixar has delved into the subject of mortality -- the killing of Nemo's mom sets the story of "Finding Nemo" into motion, and "Up" is essentially a cartoon about grieving. But the Día de los Muertos movie is likely to tackle death head-on in a way that's unusual for a big-budget animated film.

At the "Brave" screening, Unkrich said he was a week away from making his story pitch to Pixar's "brain trust" -- the group that includes the animation studio's chief creative officer, John Lasseter, and fellow directors such as Pete Docter and Andrew Stanton.

Having also co-directed "Toy Story 2," "Monsters, Inc." and "Finding Nemo," Unkrich has developed a strategy for surviving the sometimes ruthlessly honest brain trust sessions, which Pixar filmmakers undertake several times in the life of a movie.

"The trick is, you have to be willing to contribute your own bad idea, so we can all get to the good ones," he said.

There's plenty of time for bad ideas and good ones: Disney and Pixar have not yet set a release date for the Día de los Muertos movie, and their slate is set through 2015.

Walt Disney Animation‘s upcoming Big Hero 6 about a heroic superhero team, is currently an open writing assignment, with no scribe currently attached to the project. The film will be produced by Kristina Reed.

The slot that is set for 2014 has been put aside for Don Hall’s project. Don Hall is the director of “Big Hero 6.” In fact, he’s the one that pitched the idea to Lasseter, who liked his take on the subject and approved it for development. Now, it’s not fully green lit. The project is story boarded and has been deemed strong enough to tentatively put in the production line. So, if the story and script work out then you can expect this project to be the FIRST DISNEY ANIMATED MARVEL FILM.

Big Hero 6 is a Marvel superteam, owned by the Japanese Government./ They first appeared in Sunfire and Big Hero 6 in 1998, a spinoff of the Alpha Flight run, and created by Steven T. Seagle and Duncan Rouleau, though their first published appearance was by Scott Lobdell and Gus Vasquez.

Living under an amusement park in Japan, their team includes the likes of Baymax, Ebon Samurai, GoGo Tomago, Hiro Takachiho, Honey Lemon, Sunpyre, Silver Samurai, Wasabi-No-Ginger and… Fred

The comic was then relaunched and reinvented as a mini-series with manga stylings in 2008, by Chris Claremont and David Nakayama. The team have rarely been seen in the Marvel Universe, though they made a recent appearance in the Amazing Spider-Man: Ends Of The Earth story, fighting Doctor Octopus’ machinations.

Big Hero 6 is not as well known as The Avengers, but it’s another group of powerful individuals with wildly different histories and powers, united by the Japanese government as a crisis-fighting super-squad.

Disney reps confirmed to EW that the film is in the early stages of development, though they declined to specify which filmmakers are involved. As Hollywood heads into Comic-Con next month, rumors are swirling …

With Marvel also developing a live-action version of its Guardians of the Galaxy series, this will be the second major test of whether cult-favorite characters from deeper within the company’s collection of heroes will be able to connect with mainstream moviegoers.

Members of Big Hero 6 include:

Sunfire — who can harness the power of solar energy to blast his enemies.

Silver Samurai — a sword-swinging warrior with a history of tangling with Wolverine.

Hiro — A 13-year-old boy genius.

Honey Lemon — who can draw practically any object she needs from a mystical purse that’s a portal to another dimension.

Baymax — A giant robot created by Hiro who can shapeshift into a dragon form.

Go-Go Tomago — a woman in a high-tech, voice-controlled suit, who can propel herself through the air in an egg-shaped ball of energy.

When you think about it, what problem couldn’t be solved by a sun god, a robot dragon, a smarty-pants kid, a woman with a magic purse, a samurai made of precious metal, and an energy ball?

It's a new spin on a classic story arc, and Disney's upcoming short "Paperman" takes a flyer on some new animation techniques to make it work.

"Paperman," which will play before Disney's feature "Wreck-it Ralph," is a black-and-white hybrid of hand-drawn and CG animation, a new look created in part with the studio's new Meander software.

The visuals put the focus back on the artist's stroke, creating characters that have the classic pre-millennium Disney look without seeming flat.

Director John Kahrs says the hand-drawn look gives his protagonists' facial expressions depth, adding, "People believe in the characters. They believe in the emotion that (the characters) feel and that you feel watching them."

Producer Kristina Reed says: "It's not about the eye candy on the screen. You just want this guy to win and you're just watching each plane and going, 'Is this one gonna make it?'"

Variety will host a panel on "Paperman" at 11 a.m. Friday at the Palo Alto Intl. Film Festival.

Gregg Kilday wrote:Disney Animation’s short film Paperman, which made its theatrical debut in front of the studio’s current feature Wreck-It Ralph, is one of 10 short animated films that have made the cut for Oscar consideration.

Fifty-six films were submitted in the short animated film category, and on Friday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released the list of the ten films that are moving forward. With a shortlist of 10 titles, the short films and feature animation branch members will select from three to five nominees.

Nominations will be announced Jan. 10, and the 85th Academy Awards will be held Feb. 24.

The list of films consists of:

“Adam and Dog," Minkyu Lee, director (Lodge Films)

"Combustible," Katsuhiro Otomo, director (Sunrise Inc.)

"Dripped," Léo Verrier, director (ChezEddy)

"The Eagleman Stag," Mikey Please, director, and Benedict Please, music scores and sound design (Royal College of Art)

Brendon Connelly wrote:This weekend I was able to sit down with Rich Moore, Clark Spencer and Renato Dos Anjos, the director, producer and animation supervisor on Wreck-It Ralph. You’ll be hearing a lot from them as we get closer to the release of the film in the UK in February, including a great, illustrated ‘Animation Masterclass’ in Issue 2 of Bleeding Cool Magazine.

Now, though, I want to share a short part of the conversation between Dos Anjos and myself. We started by talking about the legacy of traditional, hand drawn animation at Disney and how it is influencing the cutting edge of 3D CG.

Thomas J. McLean wrote:Awards talk aside, Wreck-It Ralph’s success vindicates Disney’s long-held faith in the idea of an animated feature about videogames, which stretches back to the 1990s when the studio tried to develop projects with titles like Game On and Joe Jump. The idea still appealed to Disney Features Animation chief Lasseter in 2008, when he suggested it to studio newcomer Moore.

While Ralph features fun moments for classic gaming characters from Pac-Man to Street Fighter, there was one obvious candidate — Nintendo’s Mario — who is not in the movie because the right moment for him just never came up. (Reports that Nintendo turned the movie down on financial grounds are false, Moore says, stemming from a joke Reilly made during a Comic-Con panel about Mario wanting too much money.)

Mario might get his chance to face Fix-It Felix Jr. and Wreck-It Ralph in a sequel, which Moore says he would be happy to tackle again for Disney; a work place he arrived at late in his career. “It was never someplace that I said, ‘In my career, I must work at Disney’,” Moore says. “But to be here now, I really feel like I am in the right place. Creatively it’s been the most satisfying project and job that I’ve ever had, and this is after working on amazing projects with wonderful people.”

Draven wrote:June 21, 2013 – MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (The prequel to MONSTERS INC. I wasn’t excited for this but I am hearing some really great and surprising things from the screenings that have already taken place.)

November 27, 2013 – FROZEN (This is a Disney Animation release and sounds like it is going to be a little more classical with it being based on a fairy tale, but I would expect it to fall in line with the tone of TANGLED.)

May 30, 2014 - THE GOOD DINOSAUR (This is UP co-director Bob Peterson’s first solo film and Pixar is keeping this one a secret so not a whole lot is known about the plot yet.)

November 7, 2014 – BIG HERO 6 (This is Disney’s first Marvel based animated film, which is pretty exciting news.)

June 19, 2015 – INSIDE OUT (This is Pete Doctor’s next Pixar film and all we know is that it will take place inside the mind of a little girl)

November 25, 2015 – FINDING DORY (Pixar’s sequel to FINDING NEMO. Disney is going to have THE AVENGERS 2, STAR WARS: EPISODE VII and FINDING DORY in the same year! Start counting the money now.)

Borys Kit wrote:It's always bugged Jorge Gutierrez when the concept art for an animated film gets substantially altered for the finished film.

Gutierrez, the co-writer and director of Fox Animation's upcoming animated feature The Book of Life, describes himself as a huge animation lover, and some of the things he likes to buy are "The Art of…" books for the movies.

"I saw every single one that comes out and my biggest heartbreak is that I see all this glorious art, and then the movie doesn't look like that!" he tells Heat Vision. So he wanted to break that mold.

"The mandate of this movie was: Our 'Art of' book is going to look exactly like the movie. And every artist poured their heart and soul into that idea," he says.

Book of Life hails from Fox Animation and Reel FX Animation Studios (which previously made Free Birds). Guillermo del Toro is one of the producers of the feature, which is set on the Mexican holiday the Day of the Dead and tells of a young man named Manolo who is torn between what he wants to do (play guitar and win the heart of the girl of his dreams) and what his family wants him to do. He ends up traveling across three different worlds to find himself.

Gutierrez says the movie, which has a release date of Oct. 17, takes its building blocks from Mexican folk art, old Mexican movies and stories from his childhood.

"All my favorite albums, all my favorite books and films, they are all personal stories that take place in a very specific culture but that are universal," he says. "So I wanted to make something that happened in my family but make it for the world."

Fox Animation threw an unveiling of the art at Beverly Hills' Ace Gallery on Monday that included music that will be heard in the movie.

Rebecca Keegan wrote:Pixar's "Toy Story 3" is the highest-grossing movie of all time in Mexico, where the animated adventure tale of children's toys Woody and Buzz Lightyear collected $59 million at the box office in 2010, more than megahits like "Avatar" and the "Harry Potter" finale.

The follow-up from "Toy Story 3" director Lee Unkrich and producer Darla K. Anderson is also likely to have strong appeal with Mexican audiences -- and to boast more authentically Latino characters than a Spanish-speaking Buzz Lightyear doll.

The duo's next movie is a still-untitled project about Día de los Muertos, the Mexican holiday of the dead, which Disney and Pixar first announced at CinemaCon last month.

Pixar hasn't said how the idea of a Día de los Muertos movie came about, nor have they released any details about its plot or characters.

"Pixar movies do extremely well in Mexico," Unkrich said in mid-May, as he was waiting to offer notes to the filmmakers of the studio's next movie, "Brave," at a screening at the Skywalker Ranch in Marin County. "This will allow us to explore a really fascinating aspect of the culture there."

Unkrich said he had begun taking trips to Mexico to research the Nov. 1 holiday, best known by many in the U.S. for its proximity to Halloween and use of skull and marigold iconography.

On the Day of the Dead, which has its roots in indigenous Aztec culture, families in Mexico and many Latin American countries pay tribute to deceased loved ones by creating graveside altars with treats like candy and bottles of Coca-Cola, and donning elaborate skull masks and costumes for processionals.

"This is a very different view of death than the American one," said Unkrich. "It's not spooky. It's celebratory."

Unkrich's project wouldn't be the first time Pixar has delved into the subject of mortality -- the killing of Nemo's mom sets the story of "Finding Nemo" into motion, and "Up" is essentially a cartoon about grieving. But the Día de los Muertos movie is likely to tackle death head-on in a way that's unusual for a big-budget animated film.

At the "Brave" screening, Unkrich said he was a week away from making his story pitch to Pixar's "brain trust" -- the group that includes the animation studio's chief creative officer, John Lasseter, and fellow directors such as Pete Docter and Andrew Stanton.

Having also co-directed "Toy Story 2," "Monsters, Inc." and "Finding Nemo," Unkrich has developed a strategy for surviving the sometimes ruthlessly honest brain trust sessions, which Pixar filmmakers undertake several times in the life of a movie.

"The trick is, you have to be willing to contribute your own bad idea, so we can all get to the good ones," he said.

There's plenty of time for bad ideas and good ones: Disney and Pixar have not yet set a release date for the Día de los Muertos movie, and their slate is set through 2015.

Evan Saathoff wrote:Obviously, The Rock can do anything. One day, he may even be president of this great country. His policies will be sensitive but firm. He will charm us with his smile while scaring the shit out of The Iron Sheik or any other international villain who might think about getting in the ring with us.

But for now, he’s still just conquering the film industry. According to The Wrap, that will now include doing voice acting work in Disney cartoons.

Peter Debruge wrote:For girls who love drawing, growing up to work at Disney is nearly the happiest ending imaginable.

That’s how visual development artists Bove and Lee feel about the path that led them to share an office at Walt Disney Animation Studios, where the pair have become heirs to the Mary Blair mantle.

Born in Spain, Bove has always adored the Disney classics. When her family moved to America, her father, an artist, told young Lorelay, “Dreams come true if you work hard here.”

“It was like a movie,” she says. That spirit pushed her to apply to Disney-founded CalArts, interning for Pixar the summer after graduation, followed by a spot in Disney’s trainee program.

It was “The Little Mermaid” that convinced Lee she wanted to be an animator. In first grade, she sent a drawing inspired by the film to the Disney Channel, which featured her sketch on-air.

“Because I came from Pennsylvania, my art teachers had no advice to give,” recalls Lee, who applied to Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York. “I studied animation there off in the frozen tundra.”

Both are now considered rising stars within the Mouse House’s halls. Bove brought her Spanish background to the design of “Wreck-It Ralph.”

The film’s vidgame world of Sugar Rush, made of candy, was inspired by (Catalan architect) Antoni Gaudi, she says.

Meanwhile, Lee can be credited with many of “Frozen’s” signature looks, from the Ice Palace interiors to Elsa’s “aspirational” hairstyle. “When I started on the film, she had black hair and blue skin,” Lee says.

Piers McCarthy wrote:The hope that hand-drawn animation was back, was again dashed when we saw aspects of Moana. Many concept pieces were hand-drawn and looked SUBLIME. It was like Lilo and Stitch with double the man-power and scope. I was getting very excited, and Lasseter dropped the bomb that it was another CGI project. His final clip from Moana eventually changed my mind, but more on that later.

Moana follows a tribal princess of a long-lost tribe who are noted in history of discovering island in the South Pacific for 3000 years. There were 1000 years where they stopped – for unknown reasons – and Moana follows the eponymous heroine who wants to be a navigator, bringing back the centuries-old tradition. The father does not want her to get into danger, whilst her grandmother nurtures the adventurous side. When the grandmother dies, Moana sets out to follow her wishes. She gets caught up in a storm and washes ashore to find demi-god Maui inhabiting the island. He was a folklore hero, who could fish up island from the ocean floor with his magic hook. One fight with an evil spirit loses him his hook-staff and Moana finds him post-loss. Together they get back out to the ocean, battling sea monsters, and building up to fighting Maui’s nemesis and regaining his powers.

It’s a similar yarn to most Disney films – a heroic journey – but has this ancient, South Pacific vibe to it. Lasseter showed us a lot of character profiles, all of them looking typically Disney and full of life without any animation. There’s a pig side-kick for Moana, and a grumpy rooster that later joins, and one badass-looking spirit foe.

We also saw the research crews trips to the islands (a nice perk to the job), learning about the culture from many citizens. 8 or 9 people are now consultants on the film as they are trying to get this story as sincere as possible. The music is a crucial part as this will be a musical. With The Little Mermaid and Aladdin directors Ron Clements and John Musker directing, this should be a musically-alive film. We got to see the opening sequence (in scraps of storyboard and semi-rendered clips), which is a musical-opening. The song had a strong drum rhythm and tribal hymns, before moving into English lyrics (much like Pocahontas).

The last point Lasseter made about Moana was the animation. During research many citizens told the team how important the sea was, and how it was a character in the history of their ancestors. This changed the film slightly and Moana became a princess with powers – an ability to interact with the water. Parting sections of the ocean and playing with the water as if it was a pet meant the water had to look good. They had the technology from Finding Nemo, but Moana required more due to its essential water element. Our final clip showed a toddler Moana having the ocean reveal shells by lifting itself off the floor to uncover them. It then splashes her, and parts itself to show her a turtle swim by (like seeing it through a watery window). With the South Pacific clear blue water, the colour was awe-inspiring. The effects were so magnificent, corresponding with the twee Disney princess and bright colour palette, that you can understand the amount of work put into this. It will be probably be one of Disney’s best after Frozen, and will take things in a new direction for their CGI department.

Moana is due Christmas 2016 and it may be the one I look forward to most.

SETH G. MACY wrote:At Disney's D23 event, the company announced it's working on a new animated feature based on Jack and the Beanstalk called Gigantic. The film is set in Spain during the 15th century.

The movie will be directed by Tangled director Nathan Greno with music from Frozen's Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. In the film, Jack befriends an 11 year-old girl, one who also happens to be a 60 foot-tall giant. It will follow the classic tale of Jack, who acquires magic beans and uses them to plant a beanstalk that reaches into the world of giants.

It's "not what you've seen before with a big dumb giants walking around," Disney explained, but instead the world is inhabited with various cultures of giants, including the film's antagonistic element, the Storm Giants.

"A tiny little man and an 11 year-old girl trying to stop these Storm Giants," who are wreaking havoc in the world of giants.

During the panel, Greno said he hopes Gigantic "will become the definitive version of Jack in the Beanstalk."

Anderson-Lopez sang an original song while concept art from Gigantic was shown during the D23 panel. In the concept art, the giant girl plays with Jack as a child would play with a doll, slamming him to the ground before picking him up and singing "My falling, crying, almost dying man."

“GIGANTIC” TAKES ROOT – Things are looking up at Walt Disney Animation Studios – way up. “Gigantic,” Disney’s unique take on “Jack and the Beanstalk,” will feature music from Oscar®-winning songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, who greeted D23 EXPO fans in signature style—in song—alongside director Nathan Greno (“Tangled”) and producer Dorothy McKim (“Get A Horse!”). Set in Spain during the Age of Exploration, Disney’s “Gigantic” follows adventure-seeker Jack as he discovers a world of giants hidden within the clouds. He hatches a grand plan with Inma, a 60-foot-tall, 11-year-old girl, and agrees to help her find her way home. But he doesn’t account for her super-sized personality—and who knew giants were so down to earth? “Gigantic” hits theaters in 2018.

Carolyn Giardina wrote:Guests including Academy members and those from the animation community mingled at Walt Disney Animation Studios' newly renovated animation building on Wednesday evening. The reception celebrated 10 years since Disney’s acquisition of Pixar, bringing Pixar’s John Lasseter and Ed Catmull on board as its leaders — and also became an unplanned viewing party for the nail-biting seventh game of the World Series.

With space lined with pictures and rare concept art from Disney animated films from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to its soon-to-be-released Moana, the studio decor puts emphasis on its history. “This studio is so proud to be the same studio that Walt Disney started in 1923,” Lasseter told the guests. “It’s a filmmaker-led studio. We are the caretakers of that heritage. … We are determined to build that legacy.”

Saying that “animation is the very soul of the Walt Disney Company,” Disney chairman Alan Horn, who also welcomed the crowd along with Disney Animation president Andrew Millstein, emphasized Lasseter’s belief that “quality is the best business model.”

Lasseter and Catmull recalled joining Disney, with Catmull saying, “The most important thing is there was an incredible group of people who want to make films that impact the world.”

Those on hand included Byron Howard, who directed Zootopia with Rich Moore; Zootopia producer Clark Spencer; Ron Clements, who directed Moana with John Musker; Don Hall and Chris Williams, directors of Big Hero 6; Peter Del Vecho, producer of Frozen; Disney’s legendary animator Eric Goldeberg; and iconic Disney songwriter Richard Sherman. (Musker watched the emotional World Series Game 7 at home with his family; the Chicago native is a huge Cubs fan, and his father worked as an usher at Chicago’s Wrigley Field after his retirement.)

Guests also included AMPAS president Dawn Hudson, Oscar-nominated directors Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders, International Animated Film Society president Frank Gladstone and Bill Taylor, Academy governor of the VFX branch.

Daniel McDermon wrote:The Chinese-American artist Tyrus Wong, who died last week at 106, was an incredibly accomplished painter, illustrator, calligrapher and Hollywood studio artist. But as Margalit Fox wrote in her obituary for Mr. Wong, “because of the marginalization to which Asian-Americans were long subject, he passed much of his career unknown to the general public.”

Work on ‘Bambi’Mr. Wong is most renowned for his essential contribution to Walt Disney’s 1942 animated classic, “Bambi.” While he worked a drudge’s job at the Disney animation studio during the day, he spent nights painting hundreds of watercolors to show his own vision of the film’s look. Mr. Wong’s style emphasized the film’s animal characters in the foreground, evoking the lush surrounding forest with minimal brushwork, gentle washes and slashes of color.